Gunmen abduct veteran journalist in Sinaloa state

Millán’s abduction, which brings to 14 the number of journalists who have gone missing since 2003, came just a month after the kidnapping of Yolanda Ordaz de la Cruz, a reporter for Notiver, a regional daily in the eastern state of Veracruz, who was found 48 hours later with her throat cut [http://en.rsf.org/mexico-woman-journalist-s-murder-turns-27-07-2011,40704.html](http://en.rsf.org/mexico-woman-journalist-s-murder-turns-27-07-2011,40704.html).

“Mexico is still one of the hemisphere’s most dangerous countries for journalists,” Reporters Without Borders said. “A total of 19 have been killed in a continuing wave of terror since the start of 2010. In eight of these cases, the motive was clearly linked to the victim’s work. It is high time the authorities implemented the ‘protection mechanisms’ for journalists that were ratified under the federal interior ministry’s aegis in November 2010 [http://en.rsf.org/mexico-tv-technician-killed-in-coahuila-11-02-2011,39538.html](http://en.rsf.org/mexico-tv-technician-killed-in-coahuila-11-02-2011,39538.html).

“We point out that the Sinaloa Cartel, one the Mexico’s leading drug-trafficking organizations, has been on the Reporters Without Borders list of Predators of Press Freedom for several years [http://en.rsf.org/predator-sinaloa-gulf-and-juarez-cartels,37207.html](http://en.rsf.org/predator-sinaloa-gulf-and-juarez-cartels,37207.html).”

According to a Sinaloa police communiqué, Millán had just left his office in Fraccionamiento Canaco, a district in the northern part of the city, when his car was intercepted by gunmen in two vehicles. José Alfredo Beltrán, the head of the “7 de Junio” journalists’ association, to which Millán belongs, told Reporters Without Borders that Millán’s handicapped brother, who was kidnapped with him, was released at Millán’s request.

Aged 53, Millán has been a journalist for the past 30 years. The media he has worked for include Radio UAS (a station operated by the Autonomous University of Sinaloa) and the newspapers El Debate and El Sol de Sinaloa. He covers regional politics and is critical of the local government [http://www.a-discusion.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=category&layout=blog&id=13&Itemid=23](http://www.a-discusion.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=category&layout=blog&id=13&Itemid=23).

The Sinaloa state prosecutor’s office has launched an investigation into the abduction and has requested assistance from the special prosecutor’s office for attacks on the news media. Reporters Without Borders urges the authorities to work on the assumption that Millán’s kidnapping is linked to his work as a journalist, and to provide his family with immediate protection, especially his brother, who was a witness of the abduction.

The toll from the federal offensive against drug trafficking that President Felipe Calderón launched in December 2006, using 50,000 troops, is more than 50,000 dead nationwide, and more than 15,000 in 2010 alone. This undeclared war is being accompanied by a parallel bloody war among the cartels for control of the trafficking. The result has been a tragic deterioration in the working environment for journalists, especially in the north of the country.

Reporters Without Borders continues to relay the “No more blood – No más sangre” campaign by leading Mexican cartoonists [http://en.rsf.org/mexique-basta-de-sangre-no-sangre-campaign-11-02-2011,39540.html](http://en.rsf.org/mexique-basta-de-sangre-no-sangre-campaign-11-02-2011,39540.html).

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Reporters Sans Frontières
Freedom of expression and of information will always be the world’s most important freedom. If journalists were not free to report the facts, denounce abuses and alert the public, how would we resist the problem of children-soldiers, defend women’s rights, or preserve our environment? In some countries, torturers stop their atrocious deeds as soon as they are mentioned in the media. In others, corrupt politicians abandon their illegal habits when investigative journalists publish compromising details about their activities. Still elsewhere, massacres are prevented when the international media focuses its attention and cameras on events.
Freedom of information is the foundation of any democracy. Yet almost half of the world’s population is still denied it. rsf.org

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